From the National Register application:
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"The Victorian eclectic-style Bunker Building, 820 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri, is a typical example of locally designed business structures of the late nineteenth century. It displays a provincial amalgam of Romanesque, Gothic, and Neo-Classic revival elements. The main (east) and secondary (south) facades front on Baltimore Avenue and 9th Street respectively. The rear (north) wall is on an alley; on the west side there is a common wall with the neighboring Lyceum Building. Engaged buttresses separate the east facade into six bays; the south facade is similarly divided into three bays.
EXTERIOR
Over-all dimensions
The Bunker Building has a rectangular plan, measuring 29.45 feet on the north and south facades and 121 feet on the east and west facades. Rising 70 feet in height, it is topped by a 30-foot-square penthouse.
Construction materials and colors
Uncoursed native limestone foundations three feet thick support the brick walls; the east and south facades are veneered with red pressed brick. The penthouse is of frame (pine) construction. Decorative features are of white building stone, brick, and metal. Cast-iron columns support the east-facade arcade.
Openings
Windows, south facade: Two-over-two light, double-hung sash fill the upper-story window openings. Positioned one per bay, windows on the second and third-story levels have segmental arched openings; those on the fourth story are round-arched. Each window is trimmed by radiating vousoirs and variously decorated stringcourses serving as sills. The first story has store front windows across its width.
The first story has store front windows across its width. Additionally, a single, rectangular-shaped basement window is in the westernmost bay.
east facade: The upper-story window openings occur three to each bay. Most are filled with one-over-one light, double-hung sash. The opening shape follows the pattern established for the south facade. Radiating vousoirs and decorated stringcourses, again serving as sills, trim each window.
First-story window openings are round-arched. Those in the second bay are filled by one-over-one light, double-hung sash and trimmed by radiating vousoirs; those in the northern three bays have one-over-one light, double-hung, rectangular sash with semi-circular transom above. The southernmost bay continues the store front window design of the
south facade; additionally, three basement windows, rectangular in shape and trimmed by brick sills, are evenly distributed along ground level.
Due to the northerly slope of Baltimore Avenue, the basement is exposed for most of the east facade. Windows similar in design to those of the second and third stories occur in the second bay; the remaining openings, contained within the three northernmost bays, are filled by plate glass store front windows. Metal railings protect only the upper portions of most basement windows as the lower sections are below ground level.
north facade: Nine windows (two per story except for the third story where there are three) complete the north facade. Most have segmental arched openings and are filled by one-over-one light, double-hung sash; a stone lugsill and brick vousoirs trim each window. Exceptions are those on the first story which are round-arched; they are filled by one-over-one light, double-hung, rectangular sash topped by a semi-circular transom. Three bands of radiating vousoirs trim the upper edge of each opening.
A single basement opening is round-arched in shape and positioned in the easternmost bay. Bricked in, it is trimmed by three bands of radiating vousoirs.
Doorways. The main entrance to the Bunker Building is located off-center in the third bay of the Baltimore-Avenue facade. It is designed in the form of a triumphal arch. Details include: 1) engaged single and paired columns with capitals featuring putti-like masks flanking the doorway proper, 2) compound semi-circular arches ornamented with pointed arch lines, rosettes, and cable or linear motifs framing the doorway transom, 3) an emblematic roundel centered in each spandrel, and 4) two horizontal foliated bands containing the name "Bunker Building" across the top of the entrance surround. The doorway proper, capped by a semi-circular transom, is boarded up; a single-leaf, make-shift door is centered in the opening to allow access to the interior at this point.
Secondary entrances include the rear (north) facade doorway and the five doorways inserted in the store fronts of the south and east facades. Each doorway contains a single-leaf door; the latter entrances, all partially below ground level, allow access to now vacant small shops.
Chimneys
A single-stack, brick chimney is attached to the rear (north) facade. Positioned near the center of the facade, it does not extend above the roof line.
Roof
A flat roof covers the Bunker Building.
Penthouse
The penthouse is located behind a decorative metal gable placed at roof level above the entrance bay of the east facade."